A New Beginning!

Hey friends!

Hope everyone is swell today.
Because my school is not. Currently what is happening, and what has been happening all semester, is that the workers (cleaners) are on strike. Here in South Korea the minimum wage is somewhere around $4 to $5 which is not that much when it comes to paying for yourself, your family and your future -- as some of you, if not all, should know.
The problem is that Yonsei is not willing to raise their payment because technically thay are not employed by Yonsei; they are employed by some cleaning business. The dilemma here is that, should they be arguing with the business or the school... hmm.
Anyways, here is what I have to deal with, as well as all the other hundreds of university students and professors that visit the campus on a routine basis.

Yum! lol

Anyways, back to what really matters.

As you guys may have or may not have remembered, I have started to fall into a schedule. One that has me pinned to a constant weekly plan. And, if some of you know me well enough, I am not good with plans. Im always late, I forget and most importantly, I just feel life is too short for a tight schedule of daily crap that you 'have' to do. So to make it more interesting, I asked you guys for some input. Some cool neat ideas that may boost me out of this situation. Some of you delivered, and oh man did you deliver it well!

I got lots of cool suggestions that I will start to mark off on my Seoul adventure immediately.

Here is what I got!

So, what do you think?

This weekend, I did not do too much. I stayed in friday night. Had practice on saturday. Went out saturday night and then.... I WENT TO GYEONGBOKGUNG PALACE. This palace is the main and the largest palace of the five palaces I had previously told you about. It was constructed in 1394 and then reconstructed in 186.. something. It was then destroyed again, along with all the other palaces and other venues, by the invading Japanese. However, as you will soon see, what was left is still there and the grounds are constantly evolving to what they used to be.

We saw these guys but we were asked to not go over = Top Secret

The entrance

Inside one of the buildings

A group of school children stopped me in my tracks and asked me questions on who I was, where I was from, why I was in Seoul, etc. It was pretty awsome. Here they are. I told them to show their pipes!

Painting in the heads living quarters?

Touristy stuff

Traditional living quarters

I met this older lady. I asked her to take a photo of me infront of this structure and then we talked for a while. The interesting thing though was that we could not understand each others language but we still managed to become pals.

After we were done talking, she gave me a token or hers that she made. It was a little pouch, I gave it to a friend though (Christine, who came with us) because she thought that we were together.

We just laughed and awkwardly smiled as she made her way home

Looking from the outside

Besides the palace, I didnt do really and cultural stuff. I went out with a few Koreans I have met in class for lunch and what not.

Here are the  rest of the photos for this week :)

Me and my roomey went hiking behinf Yonsei. Can you find me?

This is the trail we climbed

We found a hidden buddhists temple. This building was in the centre of the area

This statue was there too

As well as this turtle

Last friday I went to a Korean musical called Miso. It is pretty much Korea's version of Romeo and Juliet although nobody dies and they guy and the girl end up being together.

At the end of the musical, They took two people out of the audience (me and someone else) and informed us that we had to do 3 activities. One of them was to, with the stick I have, balance a spinning disk on it and put it under my leg.

Needless to say, I passed with flying colours!

At the end, they gave me the stick!

The girls were the bad people, The rebels in the musical

Saturday I had 4 hour practice and then we went out to eat!

This is what it looked like when we were done

Saturday night, some of us went out for dinner, then dessert, then partying. This dessert was amazing. Its thinly chipped ice shards with fruit and ice cream on top.

= amazing!

After the palace, Me and Christine decided to walk to EDAE, the women's university shopping area (faster way to get to Yonsei) and saw these amazing candied strawberries. The literally melted in your mouth after you chomped down on the hardened candy.

So good!

Club eating some good chicken before practice.

After practice on tuesday at 10:30pm

:)(:

Entering a schedule

Hey everyone,

I hope everyone is doing well back in Canada.
Its been a little over a month now. So far I have visited stadiums, markets, mountains, bars, clubs, people, restaurants, buddhist temples, courses Itawon (foreigners area of Seoul), Hongdae (massive student area of Seoul), Daejeon (different city), hot springs, amusement parks, a shooting range, Cupcake cafe, Cat cafe, I have decorated a cake, and have begun to try my skills at cooking Korean dishes, and other things that I just cannot think of at this moment. I have made many new friends both foreigners and locals and have, and am still having, an amazing time here in Seoul.
However, I cant seem to forget that my life here in Seoul, at Yonsei University is slowly turning into a constant weekly rhythem of the same things. I go to class, I eat, I study, I work out, I have a meal with a friend, I study, I go to jazzfeel, I have lunch with a friend, I go to class, I sleep, ... And so it goes. My days of exploring has narrowed down to a merely 2-3 days every week, where I still wonder about courses and the things I will need to do throughout the upcoming week.
Now, dont let me fool you. I am having an amazing time here in South Korea and I would never regret my decision for coming here. Although, I am slightly wondering if I could do any more for my enjoyment here.
I feel I have seen alot and done alot around Seoul. I need to get out!
I need to see more of South Korea rather than just the largest city within this amazing country.
So, here is a task I am proposing to all of you who read this, think of one thing in Seoul or South Korea more generally that you would like to do. Give me the idea, and I will construct a bucket list of all your ideas. Along with my ideas, I feel we could make a pretty long list that will keep my spirits adventurous for the next three months!
I promise I will do every task whether it be sky diving or finding the largest tree in all of South Korea. Give me your ideas and we can both take part in this wicked adventure!

So, enough with my plea.

Besides all of that, I have done some pretty cool things that I'm sure all of you want to see. I left you guys just before I headed on over to Daejeon.
Daejeon was okay. It was a cheap two hour bus ride over and the seats were grand. The bus literally seemed that only famous people would ride it. There was so much space and leg room. The buses here in Seoul is deffiently going to be one thing I miss when I come back to Canada.
Anyways, when we got there, we had no idea where to go. Around us there were lots of Love motels but that was it. No real lively, fun place. I could only guess what this area was for... can you?
So we went to go get some dinner and it was dead all over. Maybe it had to do with the fact that we got there around 11pm.
After dinner, we asked like 14 taxis if they could take us to a busier part but they did not understand us... Of course!
Then, finally the 15th taxi came around and we just went in and gestured a student's area to him.
He took us to a student area which was busy but nothing compared to Seoul. Since we all had our bags with us, we could not really go out drinking so we tried to find a hotel, and we did!
It was another love motel, and it was just by fluke that he allowed us all to stay in the same room. No other hotel was allowing us.
So after we get in, we get unpacked, wow about the room and the sketchiness of it and then decide to go get some Soju and Korean Rice Wine. So we do that and for the rest of the night just drink, listen to music and play some games within our room. We all ended up heading to bed around 6am just before the sun came up.
We were all on the same bed and there were four of us = crowded.

The next day we headed to a spa (jimjilbang) which contained the water from hotsprings. It was amazing; just so relaxing and warm. After getting over the fact that I had to take a bath with like 30-50 other naked men, I quite liked the experience. You would just go bath hopping pretty much. They were all different temperatures. The only odd thing I have to say about it was that everyone starred at me and the other male friend I went with because we were not Korean. It was odd but after like 15min. of that, you get used to it and they get used to you.

After the bathing section, we went down to the communal area (they gave of clothes) where they had different rooms with ifferent temperatures and T.Vs and a cafe and fish that nibbled on your toes. Me and Cristian got down there before the girls came down so he headed on over to the fish. It was really ticklish.
When the girls came down, we headed into a sleeping room and had a nap for about 2 hours then decided to find a place to stay for the night, eat and then go drinking.

The next day, we headed on to an amusement park that had alot of science themes. It was a neat little place, there were rides, museums, people singing and what not. Although, there had to be only like 30 people in the whole entire park. It seemed rather ghostly.
At the end of the day, we headed back to the bus station and made our way back home!
Daejeon was a fun experience, although it was nothing like Seoul. I would have liked it if I had known a little more about the place. But thats the great things about life. You learn from your mistakes!
Unfortunately, I forgot my camera :( so I have no pictures. One friend did bring a camera so I will upload those photos next time I post!.

A group of us from residence decided to go on an outing to find a cupcake cafe = YUM!, but expensive

Me and my language exchange partner with here friend when out to decorate a cake. We were given this and told to go crazy!

So I did

This is what the cake looked like after we had decorated it

One night two Koreans an a friend Joe went out bowling. I lost every game but had the most strikes... How does this work?

Every year Yonsei has this large event in May called AKARAKA

What it is, is just a large festival that lasts all day full of cheering and spiried fun. National celebrities come to sing and everyone just has a great time.

Last week, Younsei and Korea Unviversity (their rival) got together to do an orientation to AKARAKA

The outside ampitheatre was packed full with people from Yonsei and Korea University all screaming. The people in the centre are the cheering temas for both schools

(Yonsei = Blue, Korea University = Red)

Take a closer look.

This was just an orientation. The actual event is in May

I could not stay too long for this because I had to go to a club orientation for Jazzfell

Thats right, I passed the auditions!

After the orientation, Some friends and I decided it would be good to head out for dinner. It was a friday and and we wanted to let loose.

Best way to do that is with Korean BBQ and Soju

The waitress joined in on our picture

Some unfortunatley cannot handle the Korean lifestyle

Cristian and Priscilla

These are some Koreans we had met. Look at everyone else in behind hiding. haha

Cristian, Priscilla and Christine

On saturday, Jazzfeel held an MT

An MT (membership training) is a time for groups to spend one night together away from the hustle and bustle of every day life. Usually what happens is that the group heads far out to a rural area and stays in this one room. Games, and drinking usually goes on. Its a time to get acquained with one another and create fun memories.

MT are very popular is South Korea

This was the taxi ride to our headquarters. It was packed

Im in the far back seat

This is what the room had looked like

Before heading to the rural area. We were split into groups and asked to get ingredients to make a traditional Korean meal. This is what the five of us had bought. We made these fried Korean pancake things = Great!

My team

Some sweet members from Jazzfeel

This was one of the games we had played. We had to hold on to our legs and ry to knowck oneanother over

An actual Korean BBQ for dinner!

   

Yogiyo, Yogi chongmal choayo!

English translation: Hey, I love it here!

Hey everyone!

Sorry I have not posted in two weeks, I have just been super busy with school and readings OMG!
I have never really taken any courses that needed alot, alot, alot of reading so this is all pretty new too me. But I'm getting through and still being able to check out Seoul along the way.
So I have done quite a bit lately from going out to dinner, mountain climbing, heading out to a club in the foreigners district, going to a Norabang, visiting a cat cafe (sorry no pictures, forgot my camera that day) and a whole bunch of other stuff.
Check it out~!

Dinner with friends

I forget what the meal was called.

Bears dressed up as bears

A group of us went to a club in Itaewon (foreigner's district) and then headed to a Norabang after wards which is simply a room where you sing kareoke

After the Norabang (about 3:30am-4am) we headed to the subway station. The station does not open untill 5am however so we had to wait.

The next day I headed back to the Buddhist's Temple. It was not as great as I thought it would have been. I went in a sat down with him. He did rememeber me. As he practised Korean Calligraphy, I folded a lot of his papers. We didn't really talk that much because of the language difference. However, he did bring out some mighty good strawberries

After the buddhist's temple, Seoul searching was done for the time being. Classes started and readings started to pile up. The following Saturday though, I went out with a group (mentors Club) and went hiking for the day. It was an awsome day with some great laughs, good memeories and lots of people.

The mountain we climbed was titled Baegundae. It is said to be the easiest mountain to climb in all of Seoul. It took us around 5 hours to get up and down and that with a few rest periods. 

Some nice scenary as we all headed towards the entrance to the mountain

This is half way up the hill

If I didn't mention it before, there were alot of people climbing. You can see the peak from here.

Me at the peak of the mountain. There was a South Korean flag at the top and the area was packed full of Koreans (just like everything else).

Again, alot of people climbing and some nice background

View of one side of Seoul from the peak

Well once you go up you must come down. Thats me after coming down from the hill. I am pointing at the mountain that I had just endured. The mountain closest to the middle

After such a long day of hiking, and getting split up from the group, some of us headed to an all you can eat Korean BBQ. This place is amazing! Its mainly all meat and you can eat as much as your heart allows you to eat. There is everything from steak to chicken to pig skin to baby octopy. I didn't try the octopy or the pig skin, however, I did try a piece of intestine. Yukk!

If you look closely, you can see the baby octopy (sp?) 

After a full night of partying the rest of that night after dinner, I headed back to the residence and slept untill 2pm. Then I had to write a five page paper. After which, me and some friends went to watch a movie at the movie theatre here. Yes, it was all in english with Korean subtitles. It surprised me too.

Anyways, along the way heading to the theatre we came across this toy machine.

We each had tried to get a stuffy like 5 times each with no luck. It always kept on falling off.

We got ripped off I think.

There is one pink stuffy that I tried to get and never did. I realized the other ones would be too heavy.

Two days later (tuesday) me and a friend decided to go exploring. Since none of the palaces were open that we had checked for some reason (they were all closed on tuesdays) we decided to head towards Namsung Tower. The largest tower in South Korea.

Its no CN Tower, thats for sure!

View of Seoul from the Namsung Tower

When we got to the entrance of Namsung Tower, we came across these trees. These, I am assuming, are called love trees because all it is is love noted locked on a metal tree frame.

Take a closer look!

So on top of all of this, I am doing other things as well.

I have joined up for this group which is called Language exchange where I get a chance to hang out with an actual Yonsei student. My first time chilling with here, we went to this awsome Japanese place for lunch (go out NOW and get some Japanese, seriously this post can wait). It was sooo good. After lunch, she took me to this cat cafe. Now we dont have them back in Canada, but they are really popular here.

Essentially, what a cat cafe is is exactly what you would think; A cafe witth cats. We walked in and got a drink and went to get a table. There had to be like 20-30 cats in the place. At first they were all mostly sleeping but when the workers brought out a treat, they all woke up and scurried over towards the treats. Then we got to play with them a little. It was exciting.

There was one grey cat that had a smushed-in face. It was amazing. The cat literally looked like a pug but in cate form.

Next year for x-mas, I want that (just in case any of you are looking).

Besides that, I have also been making Korean friends in my class. They are excited to hang out with me as much as I am to hang out with them. They all seem pretty cool and just want to know more.

Also, I have joined up for a group called Jazzfeel. Its a Jazz dance club. I went to the first orientation last night and it was cool. I have never really danced before and thought it would be neat to give it a try. I enjoyed it. The audition is on thurday, I just hope Im good enough by then!

Last thing and then all you guys and rest your eyes.

This weekend I am heading to Daejeon. It is about two hours from Seoul going South. I guess its an alright city, nowhere near the size of Seoul with some interesting things to see. The one thing I am stoked for is to visit the Hot Spring there. The hot spring is called Yuseong Hot Springs and it is said to have alot of healing powers.

The story behind this is that one time, a long time ago, During the Joseon Period I think, a man was wounded during battle. He came across the hot springs and saw a loon dip its injured feather into the spring and instantley the feather healed. He thought this must work for him, so he decided to go in and, of course, we was healed shortley after as well.

Ever since it has become very famously known as a hot spring with healing powers.

Also, we are going to be staying in a Jijilbang as well because we can not seem to find a hostel to stay in.

Thats all for now.

I will post again next week for sure!

Talk to you all then!!!